Archive for March 2012

Can an argument be made that your customers are the greatest assets your company has? In order to answer this question, think of what a customer means to your business. First, customers provide your company with profit. Second, they justify the purchase of inventory and investment in additional warehousing space. Third, they provide a means to grow market share and further increase revenue. Fourth, they are the reason your company finances its future expansion. Fifth, they are the impetus you need to improve your product and service offering. This list could go on and on. The point is that everything begins and ends with your customers. Consider this a constant feedback loop. Happy customers buy more, which in turn increases your revenue, and allows you to grow your business. This is the reason your customers are your greatest asset and it is ultimately why your sales, marketing, customer service, and field service technicians, must have rugged mobile devices. It is these devices that allow them to better manage these customer assets.

How much does inventory damage cost your enterprise? Have you taken the time to define these costs and their impact on your bottom line? More importantly, do you know why damage occurs so frequently within your warehouse? When answering these questions, think of the high costs of managing a supply chain with manual processes. Think of the number of data entry errors that occur as a result of managing inventory via excel spreadsheets and tables. Think not of how fragile your inventory is, but how purchasing more than needed forces your warehouse personnel to overstock shelves with huge volumes of finished goods your company has no orders for. Ultimately, think of how much more damage is likely to occur the longer you hold that excess inventory.

Regardless of whether you are the project manager in charge of multiple installations, the head of procurement, or the field service technician servicing the end-user customer for your company, you need to have access to vendor data. As such, a number of companies have decided to upgrade their service capabilities with rugged mobile computers, devices that are part of a larger upgrade in their enterprise mobility network. The idea is to not only speed up data transfer from vendors, but more importantly, to improve how companies manage both their internal and external customers. After all, the faster your company is able to respond to internal requests, the faster it should be able to service its external customer base. In the marketplace today, speed is everything!

Stop tracking production with manual time sheets! Stop making excuses for a lack of real-time information, information your production team needs in order to reduce the cost of manufacturing for your company. Stop rationalizing your decision to continue on with manual processes simply because you are unaware how to justify the investment needed in an upgrade. Instead of making excuses, start finding viable reasons to invest in an enterprise mobility network that will not only improve your manufacturing, but dramatically upgrade your company’s entire operations. If looking to simply justify this investment, think of the high costs of downtime. Think of how much that costs your enterprise. Ultimately, think of how much faster your enterprise will respond once it is able to see production happen in real-time. Granted, the global economy today is difficult to navigate, but it is that much more difficult with manual production tracking methods. Manual processes make work stoppages more costly, and your enterprise must be able to respond immediately in order to limit the damage.